Moto X unlocks by itself?

pgoelz

Well-known member
Aug 8, 2012
103
0
0
I have now twice removed my Moto X from my pocket to find it unlocked with the screen on. I am 100% positive I did not press the power button as I took it out of my pocket. Moto Assist and touchless controls are NOT enabled but active display is.

While it was in my pocket, I DID make a BT call in my car. I am about to go out and test the theory that making a BT call unlocks the phone and it does not time out and go back to sleep. I think I have seen this before on another Android phone.

While I am testing.... has anyone else seen this behavior?

UPDATE:

Testing complete. If the phone is sitting in a cup holder in the car (ie., NOT in my pocket) and I make a BT phone call, the phone wakes up and the screen UNLOCKS. When the call is ended, the screen times out normally and (I assume) the phone goes back to sleep.

HOWEVER, if I make a BT call with the phone in my pocket, things are different. I made and then ended a call with the phone in my pocket and then waited longer than the screen timeout. As I began to withdraw the phone, I could see the screen was OFF. However, as the phone came all the way out of my pocket, the screen turned on and WAS UNLOCKED. This is potentially undesirable behavior..... I have no idea if it was locked or unlocked while it was in my pocket after the phone call. Similarly, I have no idea if other features can be activated accidentally after a BT call. Perhaps this is an explanation for some battery issues?

Actually, I see no reason for the screen to turn on at all during a BT phone call. ????

Paul
 
Last edited:
Is your Bluetooth set up as a Trusted Device? Walk far away from the car before you remove the phone from your pocket!!! Chris
 
Is your Bluetooth set up as a Trusted Device? Walk far away from the car before you remove the phone from your pocket!!! Chris

No, it is not. I don't have any trusted devices configured. And I use slide unlock, so trusted BT does not apply. In any event, I had been in the house for a while before I pulled the phone out of my pocket, so it had long since disconnected from the car BT.

Paul
 
Mine does the intermittently as well, I also noticed since 4.4 if I have a missed call it doesn't lock itself either.

Posted via Android Central App
 
While the phone was in your pocket, was the screen facing your body?
I have had some issues with having the phone in my top shirt pocket since it seems the screens 'senses' the touch and then activated...
Now I put it facing to the outside, and there's no issue...

Enviado desde mi XT1058 usando Tapatalk 2
 
While the phone was in your pocket, was the screen facing your body?
I have had some issues with having the phone in my top shirt pocket since it seems the screens 'senses' the touch and then activated...
Now I put it facing to the outside, and there's no issue...

Enviado desde mi XT1058 usando Tapatalk 2

Yes, in my pants pocket with the screen facing inwards. I like the added screen protection carrying it that way.

I THINK I FIGURED IT OUT!

The missed call comment above triggered something so I did some more testing. Turns out that even if the phone is in my pocket, during a call it behaves as though I have it up to my ear...... the phone is awake and the screen stays off as long as it senses proximity. When the call ends, it DOES NOT time out, re-lock and go to sleep.... it seems to assume I still have it up to my ear. If I then take it out of my pocket, it acts as though I took it away from my ear and the screen turns on. At that point, it will re-lock after the timeout, but only if I take it out of my pocket.

I have verified that in this intermediate state of "screen off but not locked", it is NOT asleep. I use Deep Sleep Battery Saver to turn off data and WiFi when the phone is locked and in this intermediate state, WiFi remains on and connected.

The behavior remains even after I disable active display. And I don't want to disable the proximity sensor even if I could. So I'm stuck!

This is a bug.... now to see if I can figure a workaround so the phone does not stay awake in my pocket after I make a BT call. That is just dumb :(

EDIT:

If I set a PIN, it apparently re-locks after a call in my pocket. So I guess that is a workaround, but I don't really want to have to enter a PIN every time I want to unlock.....

Paul
 
Last edited:
MORE INFO......

After experimenting last night and installing "After Call Lock", I charged the phone, then unplugged it and left it overnight. In the morning, I was surprised so see somewhat higher overnight battery drain..... maybe 1.5%/hour vs. the usual 1%/hr I normally get.

According to the battery stats, the "phone" kept the phone awake all night. It was not on a call, it just kept itself awake. It showed 8.5 hours awake and 12 minutes of CPU time. Those two figures should have been zero.

This morning I rebooted the phone and it looks like "phone" is no longer holding the phone awake.

So what it looks like to me is that there is something fundamentally wrong in the OS that causes the "phone" to keep the phone awake after an in-pocket call and even an app like After Call Lock does not actually put the phone to sleep again.

So I am still looking for a solution. I am going to create a new thread called "phone won't sleep after in-pocket call" and reference this thread so the issue will get wider attention.

Paul
 
I haven't seen this exactly, but I have had a somewhat similar issue since the 4.4 upgrade. Three times now I have locked the phone by pressing the power button after making a call, only to subsequently pocket-dial someone. If I switch to a different app or go to the home screen before locking, this doesn't happen.
 
I'm glad to find out others have had this happen also. I thought I was going a little "bonkers" because of the occasional "pocket calls". I have a Verizon Moto X, with 4.4 OS and have been doing the same as Jay Gloab, pressing the power key after exiting a call only to find out I initiated a "pocket call" unbeknownst to me.
 
This is a bug.... now to see if I can figure a workaround so the phone does not stay awake in my pocket after I make a BT call. That is just dumb :(

EDIT:

If I set a PIN, it apparently re-locks after a call in my pocket. So I guess that is a workaround, but I don't really want to have to enter a PIN every time I want to unlock.....

Paul

What if you instead use your BT as a trusted device? Then you wouldn't need a third party app and maybe the battery drain will differ/improve in some way. Worth an experiment.
 
What if you instead use your BT as a trusted device? Then you wouldn't need a third party app and maybe the battery drain will differ/improve in some way. Worth an experiment.

The point.... with me, anyway..... is that I DON'T want it unlocked when it is in the car. I keep it in my pocket and use the vehicle BT for incoming and outgoing calls. I have no need for it to unlock at all unless I actually pull it out of my pocket to make a call. Which I rarely do.

Unless I'm missing something, using the vehicle BT as a trusted device is the opposite of what I want. ??

Paul
 
Ah, okay. Got it. I misunderstood that part. I thought you did want it unlocked in the car. Sorry bout that!
 
The point.... with me, anyway..... is that I DON'T want it unlocked when it is in the car. I keep it in my pocket and use the vehicle BT for incoming and outgoing calls. I have no need for it to unlock at all unless I actually pull it out of my pocket to make a call. Which I rarely do.

Unless I'm missing something, using the vehicle BT as a trusted device is the opposite of what I want. ??

Paul

Is the vehicle blue tooth talking to your phone to make those calls, or to some other device?
 
Is the vehicle blue tooth talking to your phone to make those calls, or to some other device?

Not sure what you mean. In the vehicle, yes the vehicle BT is talking to my phone. When I make or receive a call in the car, it is via BT and the phone lives in my pocket. I have not tested with the phone connected to BT exhaustively but the first time I observed my phone waking up to an unlocked state was following an outgoing in-pocket BT call in the car. I made an outgoing call in the car, then exited the car and came into the house. BT was no longer connected. When I pulled the phone out of my pocket, the screen lit up to an unlocked state without me pressing ANY button.

I subsequently reproduced the issue by creating a missed call by calling my cell from another phone while it was in my pocket with BT not connected. Same behavior.... after the call, it apparently went to an awake but screen off condition. As soon as I took the phone out of my pocket (after waiting more than the screen off timeout) the screen lit up to an unlocked state without me pressing ANY button.

Paul
 
I have noticed my phone unlocking its self when I place it face down at night and sometimes its unlocked and on the home screen

Sent from my XT1060 using AC Forums mobile app
 
I have seen mine unlock at random times, sometimes after unplugging or grabbing it to move to another room. have actually seen it go straight to home screen in landscape view for a couple seconds before going off.
 
Interesting... both of you. I think we are on to something. Just exactly what, I'm not sure. But clearly the phone is capable of doing things that can activate background processes when we aren't expecting it.

Just yesterday, I happened to be looking in the direction of my phone where it was lying face up and in standby. As I was looking at it, the screen turned on (I did not catch if it was unlocked or not) and after about two seconds it turned off again. When I picked it up and hit the power button, it was locked. I had received but ignored a call about five minutes prior and it could well have been the active display screen that erroneously turned all the way on instead of just the notification portion.

I have not yet tried duplicating the issue in safe mode...... I do use a missed call reminder app that could be part of the puzzle. Does anyone else?

EDIT:
I tried it in safe mode and the behavior persists..... a missed call with the phone in my pocket causes it to turn on to an UNLOCKED screen the next time the phone is removed from my pocket. I have to assume that in the time following the missed call, the phone is awake and background process are running.

Paul
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
954,625
Messages
6,962,243
Members
3,163,095
Latest member
jams